No one wanted to beta-read it, so I'm posting this
un-beta-ed. Poor little me. .

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She sneezed loud and hard, squeezed her shaking arms with her dripping hands and looked at the dark, gray sky menacingly hovering above her. Around her were the grass fields and the small road that sliced across the tiny town of Rizenbul, barely visible. It was raining so hard that her vision was blocked by seemingly a million
gray streaks falling from the sky. Apparently, no one was around to lend her some help,
help being an umbrella. Winry Rockbell shivered. The view made her feel cold, as if standing in the rain wasn't freezing enough. She mentally hit herself with a wrench for being unprepared for the rain.

"It's going to rain, Winry. Bring an umbrella," she remembered him saying. He was there, sitting lazily on the sofa, drinking orange juice with his one, able hand. The nonchalant expression on his face annoyed her, as if
nothing had happened recently. The golden-haired snob didn't even look at her. He just stared at the wall while giving her advice about the weather.

Winry tightened her grip on the doorknob and gave an upset pout, despite knowing that he won't see it anyway. "Who's believing you, BUG?"

Ah. She had hit the jackpot.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY BUG THAT ESCAPES THE WRATH OF A SHOE BECAUSE HE'S SO SMALL THAT HE FITS IN THE GROOVES AND CAN'T GET SQUASHED!" Ed's body shot up in anger, forgetting the banana peeling he had dropped there just a few minutes ago. He slipped and landed flat and hard on his stomach. Winry swore that the loud crash could break the old, wooden floor of their house. Being an automail mechanic, and an expert in the making at that, she knew that it was hard for a person to maintain balance with only one arm.

She secretly smiled. The sight of his suffering delighted her currently sadistic heart. She turned the knob and took a little step outside. "Of course, it's you, my cute,
little bug." She gave the late answer with the sweetest smile she could give, which Ed apparently found the most annoying, for he kicked and stomped and pounded on the floor like a pig who knows he's about to be roasted. When the nasty simile crossed Winry's mind, the sadistic smile failed to hide itself and showed on her face.

"See you later, bug," Winry said, slammed the door, and left for the market. The bright, golden sun and the clear, blue sky were a wonderful sight to behold, but nothing could beat what she just saw, matched with the screaming, demanding voice from inside the house

Stupid bug, she thought.

Winry continued to stare at the rain. The willow tree offered as much help as it could with it's wide branches. As much as
she didn't want to hurt the lone willow tree's feelings, she wanted to tell the tree that the help she was lending her was pretty useless. She was dripping wet, to say the least.

Stupid, stupid, stupid bug that can only tell me how pissed he is at being insulted about his height.

Was it just her imagination, or was the rain growing stronger?

Stupid, stupid, stupid, idiotic, brainless, retarded bug whose speech consists only of 'Winry, I destroyed my auto-mail again. Hehehehe. Can you fix it for me?' and 'WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY BUG THAT ESCAPES THE WRATH OF A SHOE BECAUSE HE'S SO SMALL THAT HE FITS IN THE GROOVES AND CAN'T GET SQUASHED!'

She looked at her watch, and it read five-thirty in the afternoon. It was about to get darker soon. Where were the people of Rizenbul?

"Pathetic." The flat tone blended with the pattering of the rain, but the voice was too distinct for Winry to miss.

He held out an open umbrella to her with his one, able hand. He still had the nonchalant look on his face, but she thought she imagined a slight frown. His golden hair was wet, glistening with water droplets. His clothes were only moist. Apparently, he hadn't been out in the rain for that long.

"Ed?"

"Come on just get the umbrella!" he almost shouted.

Winry could barely speak. She didn't know if it was because she was feeling too cold or if she was just shocked. "B-but you can't get the arm's base wet..."

"It's already wet so just get the umbrella, okay?"

Winry grabbed the umbrella from Ed's hands, which placed a short smile on his face. He stopped, however, when Winry threw the umbrella aside and let it softly bounce across the wet earth. "You're going to make my job harder!"

"But you're getting wet!" Ed shouted back. "If you get sick, I'll be wo--" there was slight, tentative pause. "-- I mean, it'll take you longer to fix my arm!"

Deep inside, Winry fumed. She was just his automail mechanic, after all. That was all. She felt terribly angry, and could only glare back in return. Ed did the same, waiting for her to say something. Moments passed, then seconds. Minutes did just the same. The sound of the rain against the earth surfaced again, drowning out screaming voices wanting to express different kinds of feelings, but just couldn't.

And the staring game continued, like the beginning of a fight scene from an old anime series. If looks could kill, they literally did so right now. Pitter-patter, pit-a-pat. Neither of them planned to lose. The sun had already decided to transfer hiding places, from beneath the clouds to below the horizon.

-----

Alphonse Elric, all battered and broken, remained in what seemed to be a sitting position by the window. The
gray sky loomed overhead, the sound of the rain almost deafening. The clock on the wall read six in the evening. Although his physical features couldn't show it, he gave a worried glance towards the window.

'Niisan... Winry... Where are they?

----

"A-CHOO!"

The silence was broken by a duet of sneezes.

"Great. Now we're both dripping wet," Ed muttered angrily between gritted teeth. He could barely be heard amidst the pitter-patter, pit-a-pat.

"Let's just go home, Ed," Winry half-begged and half-demanded.

Ed's face softened. He threw a glance at the muddied umbrella and then looked up at Winry. "Yeah. We should." He took a step forward and so did Winry. It didn't take the long to get to the mud road (formerly a dirt road) that led to the Rockbell residence. They walked on either side of it, not looking at each other.

"Ed, we left the umbrella," Winry told him quietly.

"Like it still matters." Ed gave out a little sneeze.

Pitter-patter, pit-a-pat. "You're right."

Silence, silence, pitter-patter, silence, silence, pit-a-pat, the surroundings sang. The two continued to walk, as if heading nowhere.

Winry broke the silence.

"You were about to say something earlier, weren't you?" Ed looked up from the ground and glanced at
her. The expression on his face was a terrible hybrid of frustration, bewilderment and denial. Then, as if realizing that he looked funny and
embarrassing with his facial expression and wet clothes, he turned away and blushed.

Winry hastened her pace. The sight of Ed fuming like a dog whose hair was being dyed pink was a favorite of hers. It made her heart jump. "Walk faster. The more the base of your arm gets wet, the harder it will be for me to fix."

Ed put his hand in his pocket, slouched and continued to look away. "Blah, blah, blah." He took his hand out from his pocket again and waved his hand, as if dismissing the idea.

Winry giggled. "Last one who gets home has to give Den a bath tomorrow!" she shouted, and then ran. Mud sloshed against her bare legs, some of the mud staining her arm. The rain continued to fall. Thunder shouted from a distance. Ed started to run, carefully maintaining balance with only one arm, screaming at her words closely related to expletives.